Egypt high court overturns Morsi's decree reinstating parliament

Egyptian MPs talk during a session at the parliament building in Cairo on July 10, 2012.

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Egypt's highest court has overturned Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s decree reinstating the country’s parliament.
The ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court was announced on Tuesday, hours after the parliament reconvened briefly on the same day by a presidential decree, the Associated Press reported.
On Sunday, Morsi issued a decree reinstating the dissolved parliament in defiance of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which dissolved the parliament on June 16 in line with an earlier ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court.
The move to reinstate the parliament is the first showdown between Morsi and the country’s powerful military.
The military had earlier warned that the decision to dissolve the parliament must be upheld, saying that all state authorities should respect the constitution. But the president and lawmakers argue that the parliament’s dissolution was itself unconstitutional.
Under a constitutional declaration issued on June 17, the junta also took control of the state budget and gave itself veto power over a new constitution, making the new president almost powerless.
Meanwhile, in response to a call by the Muslim Brotherhood for a million-man march on Tuesday, thousands of Egyptians are still at Cairo’s Tahrir Square to voice their support for their elected president in his open challenge to the military.
After days of delay, Egypt’s Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission announced Morsi was the winner of the county’s presidential runoff election on June 24.
Morsi picked up 13.2 million votes out of just over 26 million ballots cast, giving him 51.7 percent of the vote.
His competitor, Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under Hosni Mubarak, received 12.3 million votes or 48.3 percent.
MHB/HGL